The couple days of E3? A bit uneventful. Nothing matching the convention's bombastic scale. The Phantom Pain wasn't a a big, surprising reveal, but it was enough to wrest a lot of us from the throes of cynicism.

Ground Zeroes was too light an appetizer, too free of Metal Gear idiosyncrasies that make Kojima the highest budgeted auteur around despite some whacked writing (also, Konami has no games). After a goofy monologue, the demo transitioned seamlessly into gameplay and a horse started pooping in real time. I really, really hope you (or enemies) can step in the poop and respond accordingly.

Metal Gear Solid V offers the excitement and technical fidelity of big budgets, but with unique ideas that manifest themselves in atypical mechanics. Like the Fulton recovery system, which can be used to balloon knocked out soldiers, vehicles, and sheep back to Mother Base. Or subtler touches like rolling onto your back while crawling so you can shoot without spinning around while inching back on your elbows. Snake smokes an e-cig with holographic smoke for aesthetic effect to pass time.

It's Metal Gear's grandiose self-seriousness with enough juxtaposition of weird, quirky stuff to make it interesting. To make it surprising. That capacity to surprise, to offer something new, even within a set staple mechanics, is why it's our E3 2014 Game of the Show. -- Steven Hansen.

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Here's our Game of the Show nominees again, with all the other winners for each category listed below.

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